


Dean Winchester Loves Tacos (And Cas)

by writingfics_giffingthings



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, Men of Letters Bunker (Supernatural) Feels, Misunderstandings, Requited Unrequited Love, Sam Winchester Ships Castiel/Dean Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 17:25:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18319886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingfics_giffingthings/pseuds/writingfics_giffingthings
Summary: After a night of tv in the bunker, Cas tells Dean how he feels. It goes fine.





	Dean Winchester Loves Tacos (And Cas)

Dean lay in bed long after he’d woken up, clenching his jaw and turning the words he’d stupidly said the night before over again in his mind.

_“Well…great. And I love tacos!”_

Yeah.

He pulled the covers back over his head and curled himself into a pissed-off ball.

It wasn’t that Cas had never said “I love you,” before. He had. But last night, on the couch after their Golden Girls marathon, he’d removed all ambiguity.

They’d been filling witch bullets on the coffee table, chatting about how great it was whenever Rose dragged someone. Sam had already gone to bed. There’d been a lull in the conversation, and Cas had just thrown it out there.

“Dean, I love you.”

Period. No intro, no, “I love you all,” no qualification of any sort.

Dean had felt eyes go wide as the words sunk in. He’d turned the bullet in his fingers around and around as he stared at Cas, you know,  _panicking_.

Love meant a lot of different things. He didn’t even have context. Those had been the only words Cas said, and no one was dying at the time. Dean hadn’t known what to do with this information. It was totally uncharted territory, but he’d had to say something.

“Well…great.” Cas had blinked. Dean had blinked back. That hadn’t been what he’d wanted to say! But then what had? Certainly not the most ridiculous words ever uttered in response to an, ‘I love you.’ Certainly not, “And I love tacos!”

And yet!

The moment Dean had said it, he’d realized how terrible it had been. It hadn’t broken the tension at all, like he’d wanted. No one had laughed.

Cas had just gazed at him thoughtfully for a few moments, then nodded, clicked the tv off, and set the remote back on the coffee table.

Cas had cleaned up the popcorn, recycled the beer bottles and excused himself, leaving Dean alone with the half-finished witch bullets and his love of freaking tacos.

So.

It was probably past 1pm, then, and although Dean was known to sleep late sometimes, Cas had to know he was avoiding him by now. They’d made plans to organize the rest of the ammo and weapons today, and Dean was pretty much actively flaking out at this point.

He crunched his face up tight and held his breath, as if that would make it all go away.

Two staccato raps on the door startled Dean out of his thoughts, and he heard the door creak open.

“Hey, Dean?” It was Sammy’s voice. Dean sighed and pulled the covers off to poke his head out.

“Yeah.” Sammy came in holding a steaming mug.

“Coffee.” He sat on the edge of the bed and held it out for Dean till he could sit up.

“Thanks.” Dean slurped his first sip to cool it, but it still burned hitting his lips.

“It’s not my business,” Sammy started, and Dean did his damnedest to keep his eyeroll minimal.

“But?” Dean asked impatiently. Sammy huffed a voiceless laugh and cleared his throat. He must know  _something_ , Dean figured. Hard to say how much.

“Cas is organizing the weapons room by himself.” As if on cue, a loud clang echoed through the bunker’s hallways. Sam winced. “And you can hear how that’s going. Maybe go talk to him?”

Dean and Sam exchanged looks and, once Dean felt satisfied that he wasn’t being made fun of or trapped, they both nodded.

“'Kay.” Dean set this coffee on the night table, and Sammy got up to go.

“Thanks, Sammy,” Dean called after his brother, who turned and gave him a half-smile as he pulled the door shut behind him. Another series of metallic crashes came from down the hall, and Dean hurried to pull on jeans and a t-shirt.

***

Cas seemed to be trying to shove an angel blade into a tackle box as Dean crept into the room they used for storage. Cas froze for a moment, looking up when he noticed Dean, but promptly turned away and dropped the blade onto the counter from a height clearly meant to cause an exaggerated clatter. He shoved the tackle box back, and pulled the top divider out, dumping its contents noisily into a metal tray.

“Hey, Cas,” Dean tried.

“Dean.” He didn’t turn back around, instead removing the next divider down and emptying that one the same way.

This wasn’t looking good for the home team. Dean briefly considered cracking a joke, but considering it was his ill-advised attempt at humor that had gotten him into this mess in the first place, he thought better of it.

“Listen. I know I messed up last night. I got agitated, and I obviously could have handled it better, but-” Cas scoffed loudly, interrupting Dean, and dramatically rolled his head back to stare up at the ceiling.

“You think?” he asked, sarcasm positively dripping. Dean winced. He probably deserved that.

“Yeah,” he admitted sheepishly. “I don’t know what I was thinking. And I’m sorry for the way I answered you, but-”

“Ohh, he’s sorry, now!” Cas complained to no one, certainly not speaking to Dean. He perched his hands on his hips, turning to face a different wall. “Well, that makes everything better.”

Dean tried to swallow his pride. Then Cas knocked the tray of bullets off the work surface with a swish of his oversized jacket, and, clearly furious, kicked it across the floor. He turned back to Dean, finally, and pursed his lips.

“It’s just fine. Everything can just go back to how it was, and you can stay totally comfortable, regardless of anyone else in the Universe.” Dean could feel himself losing his cool. Cas clearly saw it too, and tilted his head defiantly.

“Jesus, Cas,” he grumbled, letting his self control slip just a little. “Don’t you think you’re being sorta passive aggressive?”

Cas took an exaggerated step back, looking aghast.

“ME.  _I’m_  being passive aggressive? Listen to me, Dean Winchester, if I’m being passive aggressive, you have yourself to thank, because I learned everything I know from YOU.” He made to storm out, but Dean caught him and shut the door before he could leave.

“Oh, don’t be a dick, Cas. You’re in here making enough noise to wake the dead, just cause I made a bad joke. I’m so sorry I’m not a perfect angel like you.”

“A joke? Is that what that was to you? Because I’ve been trying to tell you I’m in love with you for years, and you just ignore me. Every time, without fail! You could have the common decency to tell me you don’t love me back. I would take it without complaint, if you’d just be honest with me. But I don’t think your so-called joke was very funny.”

Dean had stopped breathing halfway through Cas’s rant.

_In love?_

Dean wasn’t sure what his face was doing, but Cas stopped talking and crinkled his forehead. Maybe Dean looked as shocked as he felt.

“You’re in love with me?” he asked, unable to ask any less bluntly.

Cas opened his mouth, then shut it again. He looked increasingly baffled.

“You’ve been in love with me  _for years?_ ”

Cas took a tentative step toward him.

“Yes,” Cas said too loudly, his voice soaked with exasperation. “Of course I am. What do you think I’ve been saying to you all this time?” He searched Dean’s eyes as he waited for an answer.

Dean stuck his hands out and shook his head,  _what-the-fucking-fuck_ style.

“Why the hell didn’t you just say so?” Dean demanded. “You can hear what goes on in my brain. Profound bond and all. You have actively been inside my head!” Dean felt so frustrated he could scream. Cas stared back at him, wide eyed and frozen in place.

“What are you saying, Dean?”

“You know what the hell I’m saying, Cas! You can read my thoughts! I’m in love with you, too, you Goddamn asshole! You know I am.”

Cas was shaking his head in horror.

“No. No, no,” he said, reaching for Dean. “I left that part of your mind alone at every turn. I never went there. I told myself it was for your privacy, but to be frank, I was truly terrified to know, Dean.”

Cas grabbed Dean’s hands in his. “What if the answer was no, and I never even asked you the question?”

Dean pulled a hand back, wiping it down over his face. So Cas hadn’t just been telling him he “loved” him as a way to smooth over an awkward knowledge that the romantic love was one-sided. He really loved Dean, in the way that Dean loved him.

“Jesus. We are a couple of fucking idiots.”

“I…owe you an apology for my emotional outburst this morning, Dean.”

“Shut up. Shut the fuck up, you beautiful bastard,” Dean laughed. He wrapped Cas up in his arms and kissed him hard on the cheek. “You love me. You’re in love with me!”

Cas even smiled a little as Dean cracked up.

“I am. Ever since I first laid a hand on you, Dean.”

Dean’s heart swelled and he let his face drift in close to Cas.

“Not for nothin’, but the last time someone looked at me like that, I fell madly in love with him.”

Through half-lidded eyes, Dean saw the corner of Cas’s mouth perk up, and then he seemed to run out of patience, grabbing a fistful of shirt and kissing Dean breathless.

***

When Sam popped his head in around six, they were just about finished reorganizing their stock of weaponry. They could’ve gotten it done a lot faster if they hadn’t kept getting sidetracked. Cas scrubbed a hand over his kiss-stained mouth as he turned toward the door.

“Dinner’s ready,” Sammy told them, looking like the cat who ate the canary.

“Shut up, Sammy,” Dean said with a laugh. Sammy flinched as a cleaning towel sailed toward his face, narrowly dodging it.

Cas shut the drawer he’d been working on and stepped close to Dean, lacing their fingers together.

“He didn’t say anything, Dean.”

“He was thinking it.” The three bit back laughter.

“Spaghetti!” Sam said, holding the door open for them.

“Nice. Maybe we can watch a little more Golden girls after?” Dean suggested.

Sam and Cas exchanged looks.

“Whatever you want, Dean,” Cas said wearily as they headed for the kitchen.

“Oh, what? Come on, you guys love that show! ”

“Yup,” Sammy and Cas said in unison.

“Are you kidding me? What else don’t I know?”

Cas smiled and pressed a soft kiss onto Dean’s cheek.

“That’s probably enough grand revelations for one day.” Dean sighed dramatically, but returned the kiss. Cas was right. Cas was usually right.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> This was done very quickly and posted to Tumblr, not fancy just fun. I was thinking about Dean and Cas and how they absolutely wouldn't get this right the first time, so I wrote about it. :D 
> 
> Where is Jack? I forgot Jack. Jack must be reading in his room. He's okay everyone, don't worry!
> 
> If you liked this, make sure to subscribe, and please let me know what you think in the comments!


End file.
